The Time I Quit My Job With No Backup Plan

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I still remember the soulless cubicle the day I left it. All photos of friends and family were taken down, company documents were piled in a neat stack, and the push pins on the cork board were arranged into a star.

My name tag was off around my neck. I looked around and stuck it promptly under the pile of documents. I pushed in the chair and never walked back.

There was simply an email written to my supervisor that I quit my job and letting her know why I wasn’t coming back on Monday. I made sure to turn off my phone that weekend so none of my coworkers would call, asking what happened.

Oh, did I mention I had no job to go to the following week after I quit my job, or any plans on how I would earn a living?

No Way Out (aka I Quit My Job)

In 2012, I accepted a job working in a place where I thought I would make a difference. I thought it was the perfect fit for me.

The boss would call up pretending to be a client to spy on me. Employee names were written on whiteboards. It was part of a competition to see who would perform the best. Our performance was tracked every single hour. There was constant training to remind us that we didn’t know anything about the company.

The final straw was when I had a stalker at work and nobody helped me. It got to the point where I had to hide in the bathroom so I could eat my lunch in peace. And when I contacted HR, they didn’t take it seriously. I filed a formal complaint and was told that they had no power to help me.

At that point, I didn’t care if I had no money in my bank account, because this job would cost me much more than that. It was either quit my job or go crazy from the stress.

Did I also mention that I had no backup plan? I didn’t have a clue where my next paycheck was going to come from when I decided to quit my job.

For me, that was the moment I realized that financial wellness doesn’t mean just having a lot of money in the bank. It means that the money is there as a tool so I can use it to further my happiness.

I worked hard to save that money, so I could to take the time to find work that was more fulfilling. I’m forever grateful for that opportunity when money came to my rescue and said it was ok to quit a soul-sucking job.

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Comments

I’m happy you had that money as well. That definitely doesn’t sound like a situation one should be in and I can’t say that I would have been able to fall back on an emergency fund back in 2012. But I do agree, I still would have left that job behind. It doesn’t sound like it was worth it and you’re much better off because of leaving.

Freedom to change course at ANY time without worry :D. I’m pretty much there but would like to build more savings.
I assume you told the stalker you weren’t interested and he still persisted. I once had a bad experience on the other side where I was friends with a girl we talked all the time, she waited for me after class. It wasn’t one way. I was kind of interested in her, we were both single. One day she flipped 180, i think when she realized i liked her and she must have not felt the same. Instead of just saying politely I’m not interested and don’t want to be friends she just acted really weird and wouldn’t talk to me one day. While i was trying to figure out what was going on as i didn’t realize she was acting weird because of me, she went straight to the school and said i was stalking. I was extremely embarrassed and treated like a evil person for no reason. I didn’t want to go back to that school, i think i did skip some classes because of it. I assumed she went through some horrible traumatic event in the past and this was some reaction from it. As frustrated and embarrassed as i was i mostly felt bad for her. I just tried my best to stay away after that day but it was a tiny campus. I wanted to tell her i wasnt interested in her and i wasnt that interested in the first place but i realized zero good would come from me saying anything. I’m sure this wasn’t your case, it just brought up memories of a really weird semester. I also know of some really creepy stories of stalkers too, it can obviously happen. I’m going to hide who i am because I’m still embarrassed by this story.

Good for you! No job is worth your health, safety, or sanity. Way to go for standing up for yourself and being proactive. You tried to fix the situation and couldn’t, so you made a great choice. Give yourself more credit for having that emergency fund that gave you freedom and options. You planned and saved and sacrificed to build it and now you get to benefit from your foresight.

Good of you to have an emergency fund. It’s brave of you to quit. Many I know wouldn’t do that even if they have been bullied excessively at work. All because of the money. I have quit a job years before as I had similar situation. However, my ex manager of that company helped me to secure another job through his contacts by offering to be my referee.

No amount of money is worth that type of toxic situation. Good for you for taking action. Having a e-fund gives you piece of mind and reduces stress even when deal with a tough situation like a job loss.

Wow, I’m impressed you stayed as long as you did! I guess we put up with a lot when we don’t feel we have a choice.

I would definitely like a healthier e-fund, but at least we have two or three months’ expenses in abeyance. Once this major expense is out of the way, we can start worrying about padding savings and the emergency fund more.

That’s important because if I lose this job (extremely unlikely but never say never) things would go to hell. I’d have to start freelancing for a living, but I hate writing for pay. And I take way too long to write things. It’d be awful and stressful. So knowing we have a bit of a cushion keeps me sane.

Thank you for sharing your story. It’s important to work in a place that is supportive and couldn’t agree more with the statement that “financial wellness doesn’t mean just having a lot of money in the bank. It means that the money is there as a tool so I can use it to further my happiness.”

Life is definitely too short to stay in a soul sucking job and I love that your financial awareness and responsibility gave you the flexibility to just say no! I often tell my clients to prepare for these moments not know when they might happen or what they might look and feel like; however, when the time comes, you want to feel as though you have options and not as though you are stuck.

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